Gulf war flares again despite U.N. peace efforts

Press, 11 September 1987, Page 6

Gulf war flares again despite U.N. peace efforts

NZPA-Reuter Bahrain Heavy Iraqi air strikes into Iran and promises by Teheran to retaliate have set the Gulf war ablaze again despite international efforts to cool the conflict.

Teheran said 75 civilians were killed or wounded in a series of Iraqi air strikes on Wednesday, which Bagdad said hit industrial and communications sites deep into Iran. Iran said it would retaliate within hours, warning civilians to evacuate areas around economic, industrial and military centres throughout Iraq. The United States criticised the Iraqi raids and called on both sides to allow the United Nations to implement a ceasefire ordered by the Security Council on July 20. Iraq has accepted the ceasefire if Iran also

agrees to halt fighting. Teheran has said there are positive and negative aspects to the order and on Wednesday said it had imposed no pre-conditions for talks the United Nations Secretary-Gen-eral, Javier Perez de Cuellar, will have after his arrival in the Iranian capital tomorrow. Mr Perez de Cuellar is also due to visit Bagdad on his Gulf trip, but diplomats in the region say the latest flareup in fighting has cast a deep shadow over his mission. A seven-member Arab League delegation met the Soviet Foreign Minister, Niolai Ryzhkov, in Moscow on Wednesday to dis-

cuss ways to end the war. The delegation is headed by Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, whose country has come under bitter Iranian attack for its support for Bagdad. Iraq said its raids into Iran were in retaliation for at least three missiles fired at Kuwait last week by Teheran forces. Bagdad called Wednesday "Kuwait Day” after warning that 1000 shots would hit Iran for every one that struck the northern Gulf emirate. United States and West European naval forces are building up in the

Gulf in an effort to protect shipping through the waterway. The United States is providing naval escorts for Kuwaiti tankers reflagged under the “stars and stripes,” while the British red ensign was hoisted on Wednesday on a Kuwaiti supertanker for the first time. Dutch minesweepers are being prepared for service in the Gulf, Belgium is to decide next week whether to send vessels, and an Italian decision to dispatch warships prompted a Parliamentary confidence vote. Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, All Mohammad Besharti, condemned

Dutch and Italian plans to send ships to join naval units of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet. Union already in the Gulf. "The presence of some 70 more warships and so much other war equipment in a small area such as the Persian Gulf is principally conducive to tension there,” the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted him as saying. He said of Mr Perez de Cuellar’s visit to Teheran: “We have not imposed any preconditions for the talks and we have not accepted any limitations on any particular subject.”